David Marchese

Yeah, it's like a million dollars. So it was sort of like, you know, in theory, the easiest thing to cut. And so at the time I was writing about this congressman from Florida, this Republican from Florida, it was sort of like a Mr. Smith goes to Washington thing, except, you know, the stakes were much, much smaller. Yeah. He just wanted to get rid of the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center.

OK, but they were people who really like the Sheep Improvement Center, the places that have a lot of sheep, Texas, Montana. They like the money. And why wouldn't you know if they're going to be given out money to everything else? Why wouldn't they fight for some of that money to come to this industry they care about in their state? And so it didn't work. He failed.

OK, but they were people who really like the Sheep Improvement Center, the places that have a lot of sheep, Texas, Montana. They like the money. And why wouldn't you know if they're going to be given out money to everything else? Why wouldn't they fight for some of that money to come to this industry they care about in their state? And so it didn't work. He failed.

So even the like lowest hanging fruit, the thing you think nobody would miss, somebody would miss it. And it didn't go away.

So even the like lowest hanging fruit, the thing you think nobody would miss, somebody would miss it. And it didn't go away.

No, even the education department, you know, that's been something that's been identified as like, well, obviously we got to cut the education department. But a lot of what it does is provide grants to schools, school districts and schools all over the country.

No, even the education department, you know, that's been something that's been identified as like, well, obviously we got to cut the education department. But a lot of what it does is provide grants to schools, school districts and schools all over the country.

And so there's a lot of people on both sides of the aisle that like it because the people in their district benefit from it and don't want to lose that aid. Right. So I'm not saying this to tell you that it's impossible to cut the budget or the budget shouldn't be cut. I'm just saying that it's not one fight. It's a million little fights.

And so there's a lot of people on both sides of the aisle that like it because the people in their district benefit from it and don't want to lose that aid. Right. So I'm not saying this to tell you that it's impossible to cut the budget or the budget shouldn't be cut. I'm just saying that it's not one fight. It's a million little fights.

And if you're going to cut the budget on a broad scale, you have to not only find these programs, but also find and convince or bully the people in your way, the people that are defending these programs into letting them go. So even the stuff that seems, quote unquote, easy is a lot of work.

And if you're going to cut the budget on a broad scale, you have to not only find these programs, but also find and convince or bully the people in your way, the people that are defending these programs into letting them go. So even the stuff that seems, quote unquote, easy is a lot of work.

Absolutely right. And that has been the downfall of these outsider efforts in the past is that they don't really understand how Congress works and that they want congressmen to act against their own interests. And it's even more difficult now in a Congress that is so narrowly divided where only a few votes going the other way could doom any idea.

Absolutely right. And that has been the downfall of these outsider efforts in the past is that they don't really understand how Congress works and that they want congressmen to act against their own interests. And it's even more difficult now in a Congress that is so narrowly divided where only a few votes going the other way could doom any idea.

Well, you first need to know sort of the size of the federal workforce. It's about 2.3 million civilian employees. That sounds like a lot, but it hasn't actually changed that much in decades. What has changed is the number of outside contractors that do work for the federal government. If you come here to D.C., that's what's transformed the D.C. area, brought all this wealth to the D.C.

Well, you first need to know sort of the size of the federal workforce. It's about 2.3 million civilian employees. That sounds like a lot, but it hasn't actually changed that much in decades. What has changed is the number of outside contractors that do work for the federal government. If you come here to D.C., that's what's transformed the D.C. area, brought all this wealth to the D.C.

area, is there's huge numbers of federal contractors doing all kinds of federal jobs, sometimes jobs that seem like they should be done, you know, sort of clerical office work jobs that should be done by the agencies themselves. So, That makes it a hard problem. It's not just that you can shut down this department, as hard as that would be.

area, is there's huge numbers of federal contractors doing all kinds of federal jobs, sometimes jobs that seem like they should be done, you know, sort of clerical office work jobs that should be done by the agencies themselves. So, That makes it a hard problem. It's not just that you can shut down this department, as hard as that would be.

If you're going to really shrink the amount of money you spend on federal workers, you're going to have to go through the hard work of auditing contracts, figuring out which ones are duplicative, which ones you actually need. Right. Now, this is an area where I think... Musk and Ramaswamy have not really answered a basic question, which is why are you cutting the federal workforce?

If you're going to really shrink the amount of money you spend on federal workers, you're going to have to go through the hard work of auditing contracts, figuring out which ones are duplicative, which ones you actually need. Right. Now, this is an area where I think... Musk and Ramaswamy have not really answered a basic question, which is why are you cutting the federal workforce?

Are you doing it because you want to save money? Is that the goal? Are you doing it because you want to reduce sort of the deep state, the like liberal influence over Washington? Are you doing it because you think the government does things that it shouldn't do? This is how far apart those two are.